


Time and Time Again

by Ruuger



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene, Season/Series 03: Children of Earth, Season/Series 10
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-06 22:13:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16396070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruuger/pseuds/Ruuger
Summary: All the children in Bristol have stopped.





	Time and Time Again

"...and our Jen too, just stopped. In the middle of the kitchen."

Nardole paused at the door of the cafeteria, trying not to seem like he was eavesdropping on the conversation between the two cleaners. This was already the third time that morning that he'd overheard something similar, and he was beginning to get worried.

He didn't generally care about dull lives of the humans that milled around the university, but he was starting to suspect that something weird was going on. And by weird, he meant something that might get the Doctor to break his oath to guard the Vault. It wasn't the first time it had happened. Sometimes there'd be stories in the paper about things that had a sort of alien vibe to them, and maybe sometimes Nardole hid that day's Guardian from the Doctor just to be sure (why the Doctor read the Guardian when he'd already been to the future and knew what was going to happen, Nardole didn't know). But this was close, this was happening in Bristol. Even if it didn't have anything to do with the Vault, it was children. And he knew how the Doctor was about children.

Nardole found the Doctor in his study, standing by the window, looking out. Nardole could see the Doctor's face reflected on the glass, but his expression was unreadable. He hesitated for a moment, unsure if he should bring the topic up after all. Maybe the Doctor hadn't heard about it yet. Maybe the whole thing would just go away on its own. But if it did have something to do with the Vault...

"Sir, I thought you should know... The children have stopped."

The Doctor didn't move. "I know."

The was something in his voice that Nardole couldn't recognise, but which made the invisible hairs at the back of his neck stand up nevertheless.

"I mean, all the children," he continued. "Everywhere. Stopped. In a way that's not in any way normal. What if-"

"They're not here for the Vault." The Doctor turned to look at Nardole. He looked tired in a way that Nardole had never seen before. Not even in the worst few years after Darillium. "In case that's what you were worrying." 

"How do you know?"

"I just do." The Doctor sighed and turned around again, resting his forehead on the glass. "They're here for the children. That's all they want. Just the children."

"So... you're not going to do something?"

"No."

"Even though something that you know about is doing something to children. So you know what's going to happen, and you aren't going to do anything about it?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Seventeen children will die this week in Britain. That's less than on an average week."

Nardle stared at him, stunned by the callousness of the Doctor's words. "And that makes it okay?"

The Doctor spun around to face Nardole again. "Don't you think I haven't tried?" he shouted. "Don't you think I haven't tried every possible way to stop this! To prevent it all from happening again? I've lived through this so many times, and every single time I pass here, I try to stop it, but there's nothing I can do to change it. Nothing!" 

They both turned to look at the corner, where the Tardis usually stood. There was nothing there.

"She's waiting in the void until this is over. Making sure that I won't be tempted to interfere." He nodded his head towards Nardole. "Try the door."

Nardole frowned, but did as he was told. When he tried to open the door, the handle came off in his hand.

"That's weird. It worked fine when I came in."

The Doctor turned away again. "And if I tried to go out the window the ladder would break or a tree would fall down to block my way. It's the world bending over backwards to make sure that what was meant to happen, happens." He sighed again. "I saved a family, long time ago, when I wasn't supposed to. It caused ripples in time, and those ripples are now a tsunami washing over the world. Stopping it from happening would only tear a hole in the time itself." He touched his reflection on the glass. "All I can do is watch it happen and remember."

**Author's Note:**

> According to RTD, the reason why Frobisher looked like Caecilius was because he was Caecilius' distant descendant, and when he killed his family, it fixed the damage to the timeline the Doctor had caused by saving the family in "Fires of Pompeii". Moffatt apparently also considers this canon, meaning that the Twelfth Doctor's chosen face wasn't quite as positive thing as "Girl Who Died" made it seem like...


End file.
